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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Ty Speer will become Tourism Vancouver’s new chief executive officer on July 14.

The 48-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, native will succeed Rick Antonson, who has headed the marketing organization since 1993.

Speer was most recently deputy CEO of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games organizing committee, a position he left in April. Before that, he spent five years working for the London 2012 Olympic organizing committee as he was client services director.

The Duke University graduate has also held senior positions with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games organizing committee and global sports marketing firm Octagon.

The Sun talked to Speer about what he brings to his new job.

Q. You have a strong background in sports marketing. What pushed you in that direction?

A. It felt like a fun and interesting way to enter the business world. I got thrown in quite quickly with a big corporate client — Procter & Gamble — and learned a lot through that. It was obvious from the start that it is all about the business. As much as you can go to a stadium and cheer for a team, underneath it all it is an enormous business that runs like any other business, with its own ups and downs and its own requirements to develop products and be strong sales and marketing organizations.

Q. What attracted you to the position at Tourism Vancouver?

A. As a destination, Vancouver is a wonderful place. I will be a newcomer in the sense of living there but I had the opportunity to spend a reasonable amount of time in Vancouver when I had the London role, as I worked with Vanoc and did other things in the city and have some good friends from those days. What attracted me most to the role is I think it’s a fantastic blend of my sales, marketing and service background and the opportunity to lead an organization that is fundamentally grounded in those three things. We want to make sure the brand is taken to the global stage and everybody that thinks about going anywhere is aware of Vancouver and what it stands for and what it offers and how terrific it is.

Q. What are your priorities when you arrive next month?

A. To make sure we hit all our markets. We have a great team driving a really strong agenda for 2014 and 2015, which is fantastic. But we are always competing on a global stage, so you can never really rest because there’s always somebody out there with a new idea. So I think it’s really going to be about being the strongest sales and marketing organization we can be, whether it’s for consumer or business travel, and that we’re willing to think differently and be creative and innovative.

Q. How will you help Vancouver tourism marketers do a better job?

A. I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide range of different markets in the U.S., Australia and the U.K., so I hope I can offer a different perspective to help drive some creativity and innovation and make sure we’re always thinking about how to do things differently and better. I like to drive and help support a commercial agenda, so I want to help the team be as strong as we can be commercially, for ourselves and our partners. I’ve always enjoyed building up and working with strong networks of people and organizations. As I look at the Tourism Vancouver business, it is as much a network as it is a business. We need to make sure we’re listening and collaborating and pulling together to drive the best possible agenda for individual members and Vancouver as a whole.

Q. How does Vancouver maximize the opportunity provided by hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year?

A. It’s obviously a global opportunity and I think it’s important to view the opportunity over a horizon, not just over the time it takes place. I have no doubt it will be a wonderful event while it’s on and the Women’s World Cup is obviously a growing property. It needs to be thought of as something that will bring a benefit to the city while it’s on and a longer-term benefit to the city long after it is over. Events such as this should be building blocks to take the city farther and farther along. It’s important to find out where the legacy opportunity is today and how can that better help you create tomorrow’s legacy opportunity.

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